


Insomniac Buddies

by AeveeItazura



Category: The Venture Brothers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 01:14:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7246258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AeveeItazura/pseuds/AeveeItazura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxanne enjoys some late night bonding with White after not being able(or not wanting to) go back to sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Insomniac Buddies

‘Sleep makes promises reality can never keep. I hate dreaming the most. Things that can never be real, things I miss more then I can put into words. Sleep is painful for me. I could do without the reminders.’

Rox awakens with a start. Breathing heavily, she looks around frantically. She’s in her room, not a hundred miles away in the arms of the one she yearns for. Tears trickle down her fur covered cheeks. It’s not fair for her mind to play such tricks on her. She wipes away the tears streaking down her face. Her heart feels heavy in her chest. She looks around her room once more, and sighs heavily. Another night dreaming of him and of a life not for her. Looking at the pictures hanging on the cheap corkboard, she places her paw over one, the memories hurting more when awake.

“Another restless night,” she whispers to herself.

She figures she should go and see if anybody else is up. But first, she looks at the full length mirror hanging off her door. Soft white shirt with that silly Quizboys logo on it ripped up and re-sewn orange pants, mussed up hair. After a thorough inspection, it’s not obvious to her sharp blue eyes she woke up crying again. Padding on soft pink toes, she creaks her door open, looking around the trailer. Flicking her ears, she can hear the clacking of the old guitar shaped controller from the living room.

She walks out of the room, closing the door behind her as Father taught her. Walking into the living room, she sees her Dad playing the Xbox late once more. Pausing the game, White spots her standing in the door way and slides over on the old green plaid couch. Plopping on the freed spot, she holds her knees close, toes dangling off the side of the couch. The fabric always felt weird on her feet.

“Couldn’t sleep, Rox?” he asks, his New England accent heavy with tiredness.

“Yeah,” she says. “You?”

“Eh, same,” he answers, eyes on the screen.

She doesn’t need to ask what song he’s playing tonight. It’s the same song he always plays when he can’t sleep. Some old song by White Lion about wanting to get out and say what you’ve wanted to but chickening out at the last moment. She asked him about why he always plays the one song. He said it always felt oddly appropriate to listen to a song about being lonely at night. He was never able to sit still and just listen to music, so it helped to have something to do with his hands. Too many thoughts running through his head at once, he had to focus that nervous energy somewhere. 

Tonight, she understood that feeling perfectly. Sitting around feeling sorry about herself didn’t sound like a lot of fun. She watches as he completes the song without making a single mistake. After finishing the song, he hands her the controller wordlessly. Looking at the list, she picks her song. same song she always plays when she can’t sleep. She can see out of the corner of her eye her Dad leaning back on the couch.

She turns slightly, focusing on the game, not needing to look to know he is drinking from a plain bottle, label torn off. A dog on the label, it made him uncomfortable. He’d switch brands, but it was the best tequila sold in town. She knows what is in the bottle even without the label and has grown to accept it. Over the years, Roxanne has learned to accept a lot of things she knows normal girls never would. It’s all part of the territory of being the daughter of two super scientists. Being a cat girl isn’t all glitter stickers and bubble gum.

“Dreamed about him again?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says, focused on the flashing prompts on the screen. “He didn’t die this time, so that was nice.”

“That’s always good,” he says, looking at the bottle curiously in his hand. “You really should just ask him out already.”

“He probably already has a girlfriend in New York,“ she says. "Some pretty girl with long legs and smooth skin.”

“If that is what’s important to him, then he’s a bigger moron then his dad,” he says, taking a drink from the bottle.

“Uncle Rusty’s gotten like two degrees since he went to New York,” she says. “And he’s written like twelve proposals on all kinds of space stuff.”

“Still a moron,” he states.

She laughs softly, feeling a little better. She hands over the controller to White. He jokingly offers the bottle to her and she rolls her eyes. He knows if she took the bottle from him, he’d better be fast enough to keep her from pouring the tequila down the sink like last time. Legs curled close, she rests her chin on her cream coloured knees. She tilts her head, watching her dad playing on autopilot.

Rox knows that he’s got some unresolved stuff with Uncle Rusty. For a while, she just figured they were secret lovers and Dad didn’t like the sneaking around. Then she walked in on Uncle Rusty and Orpheus talking about how to break the news to their children. It didn’t bother her as much as some would think. She was more concerned on figuring out who could possibly be the one that keeps her dad up at night. Then Father got kidnapped by vampires.

He’d never gotten even half as upset when Uncle Rusty got kidnapped. Being stuck in a tiny panic room with Sergeant Hatred, it was hard not to notice how scared Dad was. He forgot his iPhone, and he never forgets his most important device.She pretended to be asleep in the old Spiderman sleeping bag they kept in the storage room and heard the two of them talking. Sergeant Hatred accused him of liking Rusty only because he was famous. She heard Dad whisper that you don’t fall in love with your best friend unless you are looking for trouble before he went to sleep.

Everything clicked into place after that. She finally got her nerve one night to ask him. She couldn’t sleep that night either, and she just asked him if he was in love with Father. Caught off guard by her question, his eyes betrayed the truth quicker then his mouth could deny it.Caught, he explained it all to her while he played his fake guitar game. Occasionally, he’d hand the controller over, not able to drink and play at the same time. Hanging out and playing the same two songs became a ritual between the two of them after that. He called her his little insomniac buddy and it made her feel fuzzy on the inside.

The song finished, he hands her the controller again. She moves the difficulty down this time, not able to keep up with Dad’s “magic fingers”. Not paying attention to the song playing, she wonders how their lives would be if they had the courage to act on their hearts’ desires. She knows that she isn’t good enough for Dean. A freaky cat girl like her with a guy like that. She must be losing her mind to think she had a chance. Dad on the other hand, is perfect for Father. Like peanut butter and jelly, they compliment each other perfectly.

The song over before she knows it, she hands it back to White. He puts the bottle back in it’s hiding spot and turns the difficulty back up.She hears him humming softly to himself as the song loads, twiddling his fingers on the controller. She knows another reason why he likes the song. One that she bets he doesn’t know she’s figured out. The artist has the same first name as Father. When she found that out, she felt very proud of herself. She looks over at him. There’s been a question on her mind that she wanted to ask for a while. She’d never found the right time or had an opening to. Tonight feels like the right night to finally ask him.

“You ever wonder if it would work out?” she asks shyly.

“Huh?” he asks. “What was that, Rox?”

“I said,” she starts, a little louder. “You ever wonder if it would work out? If you asked him and stuff.”

“I prefer not to think about it,” he admits. “I don’t want to ruin a good thing, you know?”

She nods in agreement, understanding him perfectly. She wouldn’t want things to get weird between her and Dean like it did with Triana. She doesn’t know the whole story, but last time Triana visited Dr. Orpheus, she glared at Dean when they went to return a few books. It must have been something really bad. She heard Triana mutter “Furry” under her breath as they were leaving. Dean had to drag her out of the room. He thought she was angry because Triana called her “Furry” but Rox knew that Triana was referring to him because she was with him.

Dad had a few choice words for Dr. Orpheus when she told him about what Triana said. From what she’d heard from Rusty, Dr. Orpheus gave her a very stern talking to. He’d already figured out her feelings for Dean. He tries to encourage her every now and again to take a chance and ask him out instead of waiting for him. He’d have better luck convincing Father to sell his Rusty Venture collection to St. Cloud then getting Roxanne to ask Dean out and he knows it.

Once upon a time, she used to entertain thoughts of going out with him. They’d see a scary movie and he’d grab her hand when the monster showed up. She’d blush and act like it wasn’t a big deal. After the movie, they’d leave arm in arm, giggling about the special effects. He’d give her a ride home on his hover bike, her arms wrapped around his chest protectively. At the door, he’d kiss her good night and it would be perfect.

But that will never happen. Not for girls like her. It’s better to be content with things the way they are.The best she can do is make sure that he doesn’t get hurt like Uncle Rusty or Dad do. Having an arch enemy sounds like a lot of fun, but when you’re a little kid and constantly in danger, it quickly loses it’s allure. Not being able to have friends your age and always being kidnapped. Being a super scientist is worse.

No matter what you are working on, somebody in a costume is always going to want to break your stuff and just make your life miserable. Dean might not have asked for the life he’d been given, but Rox can make sure it’s a little easier. Even if it makes hers a little harder.

Sighing tiredly, she lays her head on her Dad’s shoulder. Keeping her super villain training a secret takes a lot out of a girl. Absentmindedly, he scratches behind her ear before going back to his game. Guess it’s nice that she and her Dad have something in common past a love for everything eighties and the colour pink. Her eyes heavy, she closes them slowly and falls asleep. Looking over, White turns off the game, putting the controller down. Wrapping his arms around his adopted daughter, he joins her in slumber.


End file.
